New 5Essentials Survey benchmarks: Illinois and Chicago Public Schools (CPS)
In spring 2025, benchmarks were updated for 5Essentials Survey scores and ratings in Illinois and CPS.
Survey benchmarks…
- Are standards for each question, measure, and Essential based on all responses from schools in Illinois in a particular year.
- Allow schools & stakeholders to see survey results over time, and in comparison to the broader population of Illinois schools.
Why were 5Essentials Survey benchmarks updated?
- Re-benchmarking is part of the life cycle for any norm-referenced tool.
- Reflect current practice: Given developments in educational practice, changes to policies and even historical and cultural shifts that occur over time, “norms” must be periodically adjusted.
- Ensure relevant comparisons: Over time, the characteristics of the norm group may change due to demographic shifts, changes in educational practices, or other factors. Updating benchmarks ensures that comparisons remain relevant.
- Make adjustments: Measurement improvements come with updated benchmarks in terms of reliability and validity.
- It’s been 11 years, including a pandemic, since the 5Essentials benchmark was last updated:
- For survey reports from SY13-24, the benchmark was created using all schools across Illinois in spring 2013.
- Starting with SY25 surveys, the benchmark is now created using all schools across Illinois in spring 2024.
- This means that spring 2025 survey report scores are comparisons to schools across Illinois in 2024—not schools in 2013.
How are schools’ reports affected by the spring 2025 re-benchmarking for Illinois and CPS?
Potential changes:
- More schools’ measure & essential scores will fall into the average, “Neutral,” category, and the overall rating category of “Moderately Organized.”
- This means some schools will change ratings categories for measures, essentials or overall.
- Especially if a school has changed score or rating categories, SY24-25 trend data is important to consider (see below).
Staying the same:
- When looking at spring 2025 reports, trends from SY24-SY25 are key data for schools.
- In spring 2025 reports, SY24 data is also shown rescored with new benchmarks to provide comparable trend data
- Later this summer, SY22 & SY23 data will also be shown in CPS school reports, rescored with new benchmarks to provide longer-term trend data
- Improvement is still improvement; drops are still drops
- Schools can focus on trends and data for inquiry & improvement, like in any year. The Dashboard Summary (see top right of school reports) is a good place to start data inquiry, using questions like:
- Which measures have improved & declined the most?
- What do student & teacher responses look like for items within measures?
- How do students’ experiences differ across different student groups, when looking at groups by gender, grade level, race/ethnicity, individualized education plan, English Learner, and free/reduced lunch data?
- How did measures change from SY24–SY25?
- How does data compare to CPS averages?
2025 CPS 5Essentials Survey & Score Reporting
Due to a University of Chicago programming error, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) students did not receive the questions for six Measures on the 2025 5Essentials Survey. This error was identified after the survey closed.
Given this issue, for spring 2025 school reports we suppressed scoring and reporting for:
- Overall school ratings
- Two (2) Essentials for elementary schools, and one (1) Essential for high schools
- Six (6) Measures
This 2-page memo shares key details, and this 2025 5Essentials Survey Details & Data Use Guide provides additional information.
We will continue to support school and district leaders’ data use with SY25 5Essentials Survey reports. If you have questions or need additional support, please email impact-surveys@uchicago.edu.
